Goudelock, Cougars Avoid Collapse Against Elon

College of Charleston 85, Elon 67

Top Performers: Andrew Goudelock 34 pts, 8-12 from 3

                             Trent Wiedeman 11 pts, 9 rebs

I was able to find a free live stream of this game so I have a little more commentary than expected. It was another weird 1st half/2nd half disparity for the Cougars. Luckily it resembled the Wofford and Furman games; not the Davidson contest.

The game started predictably enough. We shot the ball well and Elon withstood an early offensive attack from Drew (who scored our first 8 points) and the rest of the Cougars. But Elon came in with a game plan. They played very stingy defense on the perimeter in an attempt to force the Cougs inside. Goudelock was able to shrug off this defense pretty easily and scored at will. The other Cougars struggled however. Hall was getting abused on defense the whole first half and Wiedeman was having trouble getting his shots to fall. Wiggins and Monroe also did not respond well to the pressure.

On offense, Elon used some very hot 3 point shooting to stay with Goudelock. I knew that Elon was the top 3% team in the conference, but what I didn't realize was who was shooting the threes. It was the Phoenix bigs. They shot something like 8-12 in the first half. Wiggins and Hall were slow to close out the space between the paint and the perimeter and couldn't get a hand in the face of the shooters. Wiedeman actually did an admirable job staying with his man when he went outside and Carlton too seemed vey capable in the role (but more on him later). 

Toward the end of the first half Cremins decided to switch to a full-court press, which sort of worked. With about 30 seconds left in the half the Cougars found themselves down two points. Donovan took the inbounds, let some time pass, had the ball stolen and Elon got a good look (but a miss) to enter the break. Things looked bleak.

But like we've been demonstrating the last few weeks, the Cougars turned things around in the second. The defense picked up, Elon's shooting percentage dropped and the other Cougars got in on the action. Wiedeman nearly finished with a double-double and Goudelock tied a career high with 34 points.

Now let's talk about James Carlton a little bit. In short, he's beginning to look more and more comfortable with his role on the team. He's a pretty decent passer and doesn't force contested shots. When he does find himself open, he has good technique on his shot and shoots with confidence. His first points of the night were on a long two. On defense, I felt a lot better with him on the floor than Willis or even Wiedeman. James' speed and length allowed him to stay with his opponent on the perimeter and he rarely allowed for clean looks. Against bulkier bigs like Dahlman, Carlton's frame is a disadvantage; against a team like Elon it actually helped.

In the end, the game represented another great halftime adjustment and a final score that mimicked what we should expect from the Cougars. Solid win on the road. In other news, Wofford got whipped by Davidson. McKillop's team is looking more and more like a real threat for the SoCon Championship. Something to keep an eye on.